SITE

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Artsyville { I Heart Art }

Today I would like for y'all to meet Aimee the colorful artist behind Artsyville. I have several pieces of her work in my office. I love the happy colors and encouraging words she shares through her art.

When did you first
begin creating art?

Hi Lindsay! Thanks so
much for asking me to be part of your I Heart Art series! I’ve been hand
lettering, drawing, painting, and playing around with color off and on for 25
years. It was only in the last 5-10 years, though, that I brought all of those
components together to find my own creative niche. Once I got into a daily
rhythm of experimenting, practicing, and blending colors and letters around my
own handwritten poems and phrases, I found that my own artistic style had been
there all along.

There are two that are
close to my heart. The first is Creative Fire. It was one of the first pieces
in my Artsyville style, and it zips up my philosophy on inspiration: mainly,
that it arrives on its own clock, and who knows how long it will stay, so make
the most out of it while it’s here! The second is a love letter to my creative
hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. It’s a quirky, zany little college town in the
middle of the prairie. It was an environment that fueled my creative
development at a time when I really needed it. We moved away last year, so
reading that poem makes me feel connected to the happy, creative, carefree life
we had there.

Is there a project
you've always dreamed of creating? What would it be?

There was, and I did!
Earlier this year I self-published The Things We Do, a zine-style book that I
handlettered/drew about all the stuff we do as parents -- things that we’re
either too busy to remember or too tired to give ourselves credit for doing. I
polled everyone I knew, and the list kept growing and growing until I finally
decided to get it all out on paper. The planning, organization, layout and
lettering took about a year. It will never truly be complete (just like
parenting), but getting to my own finish line on that project was quite
satisfying. It also made me realize that for all of our perceived differences,
we parents all have (and do) a lot more in common than we might think!